Happily Ever After
by Child of Insanity
Summary: Happily ever after is something only found in fairytales, but sometimes people can come close. {DracoSeamus} Sappy!Angst


Hmm...a sappy/angsty Draco/Seamus fic. Written last year, but I never got around to posting it, so I had to edit for a post OotP world. *Very* slight spoilers for the new book.  
  
All charas belong to J.K.R  
  
~Happily Ever After~  
  
Hogwarts castle was in complete uproar. Students were running in every direction, yelling across crowded hallways at each other, and generally running around like headless chickens. People were crying, people were screaming, people were laughing. It was all mingled into one giant ball of sound.  
  
Diagon Alley had been attacked the previous night, Voldemort's first open attack, since the Ministry had officially announced his return.  
  
Since the first Daily Prophet had arrived in the Great Hall at breakfast, bearing the news of the attack on its front page, letters had been going forth between the students and their families. Already numerous letters had arrived bearing the official seal of the Ministry of Magic, informing various Hogwarts inhabitants that a loved one had been killed in the attack.  
  
Pocketed away in corners of the castle, students clung to each other, letting their fears, and their tears, flow, and the sighting of two people wrapped tightly in each other's embrace had become a common occurrence.  
  
One such of these pairings, was locked togethre in a fierce embrace in a less crowded part of the castle. This pair was different to the others though, in that the two boys crushed together were a Gryffindor and a Slytherin, and the letter that one held was not informing of a loved ones death, but rather of the fact that the boy would be withdrawn from Hogwarts that very night, thanks to the attack on Diagon Alley.  
  
The two boys were Draco Malfoy and Seamus Finningan, and Draco had just received a letter telling him that he had to leave what had become his home, and most importantly, had to leave the boy that he had come to love, the boy who was at that very moment clinging to him and vowing never to let him go. The boy that he had less than a day left to spend with.  
  
Leaning forward, Draco placed a light kiss on Seamus' lips, not caring if anyone saw them. It wasn't as if it would matter, he was leaving anyway.  
  
He pulled back slightly, making sure that their foreheads stayed in contact. "I love you." he whispered.  
  
Seamus nodded, and Draco was surprised to see that his eyes were glistening with unshed tears, even though he was sure that his own were the same.  
  
"I don't want you to go." Seamus told him.  
  
Draco laughed bitterly. "And I don't want to leave." he replied. "My father will send me to Durmstrang, where they'll fill my head with dark spells, and the notion that the Dark Lord's way is the only way." He shut his eyes and kissed Seamus again. "And you won't be there."  
  
Seamus pulled Draco closer to him, as if trying to meld their bodies together. "Let's run away together." he whispered. "We'll hide somewhere where no one will ever be able to find us and we'll live together happily ever after."  
  
"Nobody ever lives happily ever after," Draco replied bitterly. "unless they're in a fairytale. We have to accept what's going to happen, and deal with the consequences. Even if it means never seeing each other again."  
  
"What if I want to see you?" Seamus asked. "What then?"  
  
"Look me up in the phonebook." Draco joked, the smile he forced on his face not quite reaching his eyes.  
  
Seamus rested his head on Draco's shoulder, closing his eyes. "At least you've been listening to me when I talk about Muggles." he said.  
  
"Mmhmm..." Draco murmmered, kissing the top of Seamus' head.  
  
"I'll miss you Draco." Seamus said. "It won't be the same without you here. Nobody to insult us Gryffindors-"  
  
"There'll be some Slytherins left to do that." Draco cut in.  
  
"But they won't be you." Seamus replied. "And I won't have anyone to cuddle up to at night."  
  
Draco sighed softly. "You'll find someone else."  
  
"No I won't." Seamus replied matter-of-factly.  
  
Draco pulled Seamus' head off his shoulder, and kissed him again, slowly and desperately. When he pulled away, they were both breathless, and Draco could taste a mixture of his and Seamus' tears on his lips. "I have to go now." he announced with dreadful finality.  
  
Seamus looked up at him, then pulled him back for a final kiss, this one lasting a lot longer than the previous. This time when the pulled away, Draco could feel his heart breaking.  
  
"I love you." Seamus whispered, against his lips.  
  
Draco could only nod in reply, not trusting himself to speak.  
  
~*~  
  
Seamus Finnigan was sitting alone at a table in the Three Broomsticks, having just finished work. The bottle of warm butterbeer in his hand seemed to hold his whole attention, his gaze fixed solely on the liquid inside.  
  
Breaking his gaze, he lifted the bottle to his lips and drank deeply, relishing the feel of the warm liquid sloshing down his throat. It helped to partially abate the numbness inside him.  
  
He'd been numb inside for close to seven years now, since that fateful day in his sixth year when Draco had left Hogwarts, and Seamus, for good. It had hurt at first, losing the person that he'd loved, but as the months went by, and he lost more of those close to him, the numbness had chased away the pain, leaving him feeling cold inside.  
  
Seamus, and so many others in the wizarding world, had lost many of his friends and family to Voldemort and his army of dark servants. He'd found out after Draco had left that his mother had been one of those killed in the attack on Diagon Alley. Then, during that year's christmas holdiays, when he was one of the very small number of students still at Hogwarts, he'd learnt that Hermione Granger, and all of Ron's family aside from his three eldest brothers, Bill, Charlie and Percy, had been murdered at the Burrow. There had been a lot of speculation as to why the Weasley family had been murdered, but it had eventually been decided by the general public that it was due to their closeness to Harry Potter.  
  
Harry, had of course been devestated at losing his best friends, and the closest thing that he had left to a family, and when the media had begun to say that their deaths were his fault, he had slipped into a depression. It hadn't helped that nearly everyone at Hogwarts had decided to distance themselves from him lest they draw Voldemort's attention to themselves.  
  
Seamus, who had been hovering around depression himself since Draco had left, had taken it upon himself to cheer Harry up, an abrupt turn around from the previous year. He hadn't cared about attracting Voldemort's attention to himself, as he hadn't really cared whether he lived or died at the time.  
  
He'd succeeded, and with the help of a team of powerful wizards, Harry had managed to defeat Voldemort.  
  
But Harry had never been able to get over the guilt that he had felt at Hermione and the Weasley's deaths, and a year later had killed himself. He'd been eighteen, and had just graduated from Hogwarts.  
  
Seamus' graduation had been a sad affair, only a depressingly small amount of students in his grade were still there. The others had all either died, or left.  
  
After graduation, Seamus had spent two years in the muggle world trying to find something that sparked his interest enough to make him want to stay. Nothing had, and he returned to the wizarding world with no one to talk to, and nothing to do.  
  
He'd gotten his job at the Three Broomsticks six months later, and had been working there ever since. It didn't make him happy, but it was something for him to do, something that kept his mind occupied and away from thoughts of the past.  
  
That was why he was sitting at a table by himself, contemplating the golden depths of his butterbeer, when someone slid into the seat opposite him, placing their own bottle of butterbeer on the table. Seamus ignored them, preferring the company of his drink to another person.  
  
The person, however, didn't seem to agree with his feelings. "What are you doing here all alone?" the person asked. His coice was hauntingly familiar, but he couldn't place it, and didn't bother to look up.  
  
"I like to be alone." he replied, hoping that the overly talkative, at least to him, stranger would take the hint and leave him be.  
  
"Why's that?" the stranger asked, curiousity evident in his voice. "You look like the kind of person who would have too many friends to count."  
  
"My friends have all died." Seamus replied softly. It wasn't exactly true, some of his friends had simply left, not wanting to spend time with someone who had barely any interest in life.  
  
"Oh." The stranger seemed at a loss for wors. "I'm sorry." HIs apology seemed so heartfelt, almost as if he was somehow personally involved. Despite his wish to be left alone, Seamus found himself looking up.  
  
And staring.  
  
Sitting in front of him, his chin resting on steepled hands, silver blond hair falling loosely around his shoulders, and looking at him with weary, but warm, grey eyes, was a ghost from his past.  
  
He was even more beautiful than Seamus remembered.  
  
"Draco..." Seamus breathed, reaching out his hand to touch the person in front of him, trying to reassure himself that he was real.  
  
Draco smiled slightly, the edge of his mouth quirking upwards. "The one and only."  
  
Seamus was beginning to feel overwhelmed, and was wondering if the Draco sitting in front of him was an elaborate hallucination brought about by too much butterbeer. Then he remembered that he was drinking the non-alcoholic variety.  
  
"You're really here..." Seamus said. "Why? Why now? Why not before?"  
  
Darkness flashed through Draco's eyes. "I was unable to come back until now." He reached across the table and grasped Seamus' hand, stopping it on its rise towards his mouth. "You still chew your nails." he commented, idly running his thumb over the back of Seamus' hand. "Some things never change."  
  
"And some things do." Seamus replied softly. "I've changed a lot since you left. I'm sure you have too."  
  
Draco nodded. "I have." he said. "But please tell me how you've changed."  
  
Seamus tried to laugh, but it came out more like a bitter sob. "Everything is so much sadder now. So many people have died."  
  
Draco looked pained. "I'm sorry, Seamus." he said.  
  
"You apologise too much," Seamus replied lightly. "it's not like you."  
  
"It wasn't like me." Draco corrected. "It is now."  
  
"Oh." Seamus replied. Now he was the one with nothing to say. He sighed. "You were wrong you know, I never did find anyone else."  
  
Draco stared at him.  
  
Seamus continued on. "I still love you. I've never quite managed to get over you leaving. Everything went so bad after you left."  
  
Draco smiled sadly. "I didn't stop loving you either." he told Seamus. "I was hoping that you could still love me, but I didn't think it was possible."  
  
Seamus laughed, giddy at the thought of Draco still loving him. Feeling some of his old bounciness returning, he jumped out of his chair, running over to Draco and flinging his arms around the blond's neck. "I love you."  
  
He kissed Draco on the lips, relishing the feel of Draco in his arms once again.  
  
Draco returned the embrace, and the kiss. "I know."  
  
~Fin~  
  
R&R please! *puppy dog eyes* 


End file.
